The discussions are expected to culminate in 2015 with a
global treaty reducing greenhouse gases by imposing cuts on the
richest industrial nations and requiring poorer ones to slow the
rate their carbon-dioxide emissions increase from business-as-usual practices, said Luiz Alberto Figueiredo Machado, Brazil’s
undersecretary general for environment in the foreign ministry.

His comments underscore efforts by nations such as Brazil
and China to obtain weaker commitments under the anticipated
treaty from those of richer nations. The treaty would seek to
cap pollution from fossil fuels blamed for damaging the Earth’s
atmosphere.

“This doesn’t mean that you will reduce in absolute
terms,” Figueiredo said in an interview in New York today. “It
will simply say you will grow your emissions at a slower pace,
and this being legally binding.”

Figueiredo, a veteran negotiator at the 190-nation UN
climate talks, said the talks aren’t heading toward a reduction
in emissions that applies to all nations. The envoys will gather
in Doha, Qatar, at the end of November for the annual round of
talks aimed at hammering out the 2015 treaty.

“What is being discussed now is not something that will be
equal obligations for all countries,” he said. Every country
will have obligations that will be “different in the nature of
the action.”

Durban Talks

Last year in Durban, South Africa, the group agreed to work
toward a treaty that would take affect in 2020 and will include
legally binding targets for all nations. Under the current pact
negotiated in 1997 in Kyoto, Japan, limits apply only to
industrialized nations.

“You may imagine that industrial countries may have an
obligation to reduce emissions in an absolute way by a specific
year, and this would be legally binding,” he said.

Figueiredo said it’s essential for industrial nations to
extend limits under the Kyoto pact for any progress to be made
this year in Doha.

“It’s fundamental,” he said. “There will not be a result
without an second commitment period.”